30/01/2026
The vagus nerve sits behind the muscles of the neck and in front of the deep spinal muscles, which is why neck movement, posture, breathing, and even jaw or throat tension can influence vagal tone.
When you are experiencing anxiety and your system is in fight or flight, your body stays subtly braced, the muscles around the upper neck and skull tighten, your breathing shifts higher into the chest and your jaw holds tight while your mind keeps scanning for threats.
Gentle upper neck stretches like the one in the reel here can break that fight or flight response and help signal safety back to the brain. Not by forcing anything to relax, but by changing the sensory input the nervous system is receiving.
When that input shifts, breathing slows, swallowing and blinking become easier, and the body starts to move out of protection mode and back into regulation.
It’s not about fixing the body. It’s about reminding the system that it doesn’t need to stay on high alert.
This is why simple neurological signalling practices like this can feel surprisingly emotional, or deeply calming, even though they look very small from the outside.
